Lac La Ronge, Sask. 'On Edge' After Multiple Youth Suicides: Chief

LAC LA RONGE, Sask. — Aboriginal leaders and the prime minister say a crisis is unfolding in northern Saskatchewan after three young girls took their own lives and there are fears more young people are at risk.

Two girls from Stanley Mission committed suicide last week and a third girl from La Ronge, who had been in hospital after an attempt to kill herself, died in recent days. All were between the ages of 12 and 14.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the issue of youth suicides on reserves has gone on for far too long.

"We are working together with the government of Saskatchewan and others to ensure that we can put an end to the tragedy of young people taking their lives," Trudeau said Friday while in Medicine Hat, Alta.

Chief Tammy Cook-Searson of the Lac La Ronge poses for a photo on July 24, 2015. (Photo: Liam Richards/The Canadian Press)

"It's something that has to stop."

The communities are part of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, where Chief Tammy Cook-Searson called the deaths heartbreaking.

"I think everyone is on edge right now, not knowing when you are going to get the call," Cook-Searson told MBC News.

"The parents are worried because we have a number of youth who have been identified as high risk — not just in Stanley Mission, but in other communities."

Cook-Searson said there have also been nine suicide attempts in the past week and more than 20 youths are considered at risk.

"It's something that has to stop."

The provincial government said some of the higher-risk youth were sent to Prince Albert to be assessed by a psychiatrist, while the others were sent home with a safety plan and appropriate supports after they were assessed by a health professional.

Greg Ottenbreit, Saskatchewan's minister of rural and remote health, said it's a tragic situation and helping the community is a priority.

"Everybody is very attentive to the situation and supporting them as best as we can," he said.

Ottenbreit also said the health board chair has told him that the community is in touch with parents because of speculation of a suicide pact.

Perry Bellegarde, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations speaks to media at the 2nd National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Winnipeg on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde, who is from Saskatchewan, said suicides are happening far too often in northern communities.

The aboriginal youth suicide rate is five times the national average, said Bellegarde. Earlier this year, a string of suicide attempts garnered international media attention in Attawapiskat in northern Ontario.

"There's a sense of hopelessness, that's what's going on," Bellegarde said from Vancouver.

He questioned where wellness and recreation supports are for those communities.

"Obviously not enough hope is being provided for our young ones if they're looking at taking their lives. So it's a crisis."

"There's a sense of hopelessness, that's what's going on."

Health Canada said in a statement that it has been in touch with Cook-Searson and others in Stanley Mission about providing mental health therapists. It will help fund costs for three mental health therapists to provide counselling to at-risk youth on Fridays and Saturdays until the end of December.

But the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, said Health Canada should have had extra supports in place a long time ago.

"But the point is we're here now and what do we do now in this present day and age?" vice-chief Bob Merasty told CJWW.

Merasty said support for youth contemplating suicide has to be more than just the clinical help they are currently receiving.

The focus has to change to being proactive, affirming youth of their value and building up their confidence so they walk proudly and embrace their culture and spirituality, he said.

There are currently over 60 First Nations languages in Canada grouped into 12 distinct language families, according to Statistics Canada.

Before European Settlers came to Canada, it was not uncommon for Aboriginal women to hold equal power to men, and even had to ability to take the power away from the chief, reports UBC. Women’s suffrage in Canada was not granted until 1918.

The North American headdress was earned, each feather representing an act of bravery.

There are over 600 different tribes in Canada each with their own culture and belief system.

The High King of France commissioned Giovanni da Verrazzano to reach Asia by sailing around North America in 1523. He described the coastline as densely populated and full of bonfire smoke, saying it could be smelt from hundreds of miles away at sea. Some academics place the American Aboriginal population at 50 million while some argue it to have been 100 million. Today’s First Nations population of Canada falls around 1.4 million.

During the early days of colonization, Britain saw Aboriginal people as essential to protecting their colonies and considered them powerful allies who helped battle the French during the Seven Year War and fought off American invasion during the War of 1812.

First Nations people played a major role during the fur trade between the 17th and 19th centuries, which attracted merchants from around the world.

Archaeology tells us that aboriginal people have lived in the Maritimes provinces of Canada for at least 11,000 years.

After the decline of the fur trade and the end of the War of 1812, more settlers came to Canada, creating a large enough population to protect their own borders. First Nations were seen as impeding on economic development and were sent to live on isolated reserves, while more land was set aside to accommodate new settlers.

Aboriginal people have the youngest demographic in Canada, with a median age of 28, while the median age for non-aboriginal Canadians is 41.

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NDP Leader Tom Mulcair waves to supporters as he arrives for the first federal leaders debate.

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NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has faced some criticism for reportedly talking to the Conservatives in 2007 about advising their team.
Mulcair, a former Quebec Liberal, denies he ever intended to run for the Tories.
However, several other prominent Canadian politicians have changed their political stripes.
(Information courtesy of The Canadian Press' Stephanie Levitz)

According to several biographies of the current Conservative prime minister, when he was in high school in the 1970s, he ran in Liberal circles.
The prime minister of the time was Pierre Trudeau, and Harper was recruited by one of his classmates to join his high school Liberal club.
But soon after graduation, Harper moved west and as the story goes, lost respect for the elder Trudeau over the implementation of the national energy program, beginning his long road to leader of the Conservative party.

Trudeau also prompted Rae to get involved in politics, where he got his first taste of the life volunteering for the Liberals.
After returning from studying in England, he joined the New Democrats, eventually being elected as an NDP MP before leaving Ottawa to lead the provincial NDP and becoming premier of Ontario.
In 1998, he resigned from the NDP but didn't sever political ties with them until 2002.
That year, he argued in an essay published by the National Post that he no longer supported the party's approach to the Middle East and its opposition to the World Trade Organization.
"This is not a vision of social democracy worthy of support,'' he wrote at the time.
In 2006, he declared his allegiance to the Liberals, running for its leadership but losing.
He became a Liberal MP in 2008 and the party's interim leader following the 2011 election.

Mulcair named former Conservative cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon as the one who approached him to join the Conservatives.
The duo knew each other from their days with the Quebec Liberals; Cannon represented that party in the Quebec National Assembly for nearly 10 years before Mulcair joined their ranks.
And Cannon backed Sheila Copps when she ran for leadership of the federal Liberals in 2000.
But he then left the party for the private sector, reportedly disillusioned over Jean Chretien's handling of the 1995 Quebec referendum and the subsequent sponsorship scandal.
He went back into municipal politics for a time and then joined the Conservatives.
"The decision of Lawrence Cannon to join the Conservative party will help us build a new, clean federalism in the province,'' Harper told a 2005 press conference announcing Cannon's candidacy.
He was elected in 2006, serving in two cabinet posts before losing his seat in the 2011 election and being appointed ambassador to France.

The chance to represent Canada abroad also appeared to lure David Emerson across the aisle.
The long-time businessman was wooed by the Liberals to join their party for the 2004 election and he was elected in a Vancouver riding that year, going on to become industry minister.
In the 2006 election he ran for the Liberals again, repeatedly attacking the Tories, and won his seat. That campaign saw the Harper Conservatives eke out a minority government victory.
When Harper and his team showed up at Rideau Hall to be sworn in, Emerson was with them and was named international trade minister.
The Toronto Star had reported that while in the Liberal cabinet, Emerson had objected to a softwood lumber deal the government was close to disclosing. Emerson told reporters he made the partisan switch to serve his constituents better.
"I am pursuing the very agenda that I got involved to pursue when I was in the Liberal party supporting Paul Martin. I'm continuing to pursue it,'' he said in 2006.
He did not stand for re-election in 2008.

The Nova Scotia MP was first elected in 1997 as a Progressive Conservative and in 2003 ran for the leadership of that party, losing to Peter MacKay.
Though later that year he voted in favour of the PC's merging with the Canadian Alliance to form the new Conservative party, only days after the merger he announced he was going to sit as a Liberal.
In later interviews, he said he was told by those in the Canadian Alliance, including Stephen Harper, that the fact he was gay wouldn't hold back his political career within the new party.
But he said he was also told the Conservatives would continue to champion issues that were important with its socially conservative base.
"I could not run for a party that I did not want to win the election,'' Brison said in a 2006 interview.

The Toronto-area Tory sent a shock through political circles when she showed up alongside Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau at a news conference earlier this year and announced she was joining his team.
Adams had long ties to the Conservatives dating back to the Mulroney days, and had been elected for the party as an MP in 2011, winning a coveted suburban riding away from the Liberals.
Eventually, she became romantically linked with Dimitri Soudas, Harper's former director of communications who went on to become executive director of the party.
He lost that position after being accused of meddling in her nomination campaign for the 2015 election, which eventually led to both of them being excommunicated from the party.
When Adams announced her decision to join the Liberals, she said it was because she no longer supported the Conservatives' policy approach, specifically their income splitting policy.
"I cannot support mean-spirited measures that benefit only the richest few,'' she said.
She has yet to be formally nominated as a Liberal candidate for the upcoming election.